{"id":14178,"date":"2014-05-01T07:19:26","date_gmt":"2014-05-01T07:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/burkina-faso-court-refuses-to-rule-on-thomas\/"},"modified":"2014-05-01T07:20:19","modified_gmt":"2014-05-01T07:20:19","slug":"burkina-faso-court-refuses-to-rule-on-thomas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/burkina-faso-court-refuses-to-rule-on-thomas\/","title":{"rendered":"Burkina Faso Court Refuses to Rule on Thomas Sankara"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n

{{A court in Burkina Faso has refused to rule on a request by the family of ex-President Thomas Sankara for his body to be exhumed for DNA tests.}}<\/p>\n

His relatives and supporters condemned the decision, saying they wanted proof that it was his body.<\/p>\n

The High Court said it lacked jurisdiction over the case.<\/p>\n

Seen by many as Africa’s Che Guevara, Mr Sankara was hastily buried after being killed during a 1987 coup led by incumbent President Blaise Compaore.<\/p>\n

The anti-imperialist revolutionary became president in 1983 after an internal power struggle and led his country for four years.<\/p>\n

The court’s ruling was greeted with outrage and contempt by Mr Sankara’s relatives and supporters, reports journalist Chris Simpson from the capital, Ouagadougou.<\/p>\n

{{‘Incorruptible’}}<\/p>\n

Campaigners say the family never had the chance to identify his body before he was buried in the capital’s Dagnoen cemetery.<\/p>\n

About 100 people protested outside court, chanting “down with the Burkinabe judiciary” and “when will the Burkinabe people know the truth?”.<\/p>\n

Mr Sankara was killed by a group of soldiers at the age of 37.<\/p>\n

Public interest in Mr Sankara remains high in Burkina Faso, with opposition group demanding answers about his death, correspondents say.<\/p>\n

Family lawyer Benewende Sankara said he would appeal against the decision.<\/p>\n

President Compaore has so far refused to agree to Mr Sankara’s exhumation, and has always denied being involved in the ex-leader’s killing, Chris Simpson reports.<\/p>\n

Mr Compaore insists the “facts are known” and he has “nothing to hide”, he adds.<\/p>\n

When Thomas Sankara took power in 1983 he changed the West African state’s colonial name of Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, which means “the land of upright men”.<\/p>\n

His supporters say he was incorruptible, unlike many other African leaders.<\/p>\n

Mr Sankara was seen as charismatic and wore a beret, leading to comparisons with the Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara.<\/p>\n

Many taxis across West Africa still have a round sticker of him on their windscreens.<\/p>\n

AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{{A court in Burkina Faso has refused to rule on a request by the family of ex-President Thomas Sankara for his body to be exhumed for DNA tests.}} His relatives and supporters condemned the decision, saying they wanted proof that it was his body. The High Court said it lacked jurisdiction over the case. Seen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2000051936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[100],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-14178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-justice","tag-africa","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000051936,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14178.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14178.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14178.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14178.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14178.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton14178.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000051936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14178"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=14178"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=14178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}